Courtesy of Bob Englund Members of the Amateur Radio Club set up antennas behind Pinckney Hall for their 2011 field day.

Courtesy of Bob Englund Ken Schroeder (KJ4VXT) and Sherwin Tames (W4QNW) at the 2011 field day.

Sun City’s Amateur Radio Club will host its sixth annual field day event Saturday at Lake Somerset.

Lake Somerset was chosen as a new location this year. Previous field days have been held at Pinckney Hall near the clock tower.

“We’ll have some shelters and canopies,” said Lyle “Rocky” Rockefeller, vice president of the Amateur Radio Club. “We’ll set up our equipment there and have a picnic dinner for members. It’s going to be a nice setting.”

The Sun City Amateur Radio Club began in February 2005 and has about 50 members. Good turnout is expected with members who will be operating on and off throughout the day.

Sponsored by the Amateur Radio Relay League, field day began in 1933 as a contest by ham radio operators to see how many contacts they could reach over a span of 24 hours. It begins worldwide at 2 p.m. and lasts from Saturday to Sunday.

Sun City’s field day event will only be operating on Saturday.

Field day is an event where 30,000 hams leave their homes and operate with emergency power outside, just as they might during a natural disaster or communications interruption.

“This is an event that’s the biggest radio operating event in the United States and it focuses on emergency communications, temporary antennas and exposing the hobby to many people who are not familiar with amateur radio,” said Ronald Frick, the president of the club.

“It’s a good public relations opportunity as an emergency exercise and many clubs throughout the nation turn this into a special event. … It’s an opportunity for us to let some of the new members operate and talk to people in the United States, Europe and other places in the world.”

Frick, whose radio call sign is AI4HH, has reached as far as Australia during prior field day excursions. Each operator has his or her own unique call sign that allows for easier identification from those who receive the connection.

“Once you make contact, you can talk as long as you want,” Frick said. “That particular connection from Sun City to Australia was done by a mode where we send digital information through a computer over the radio. That allows us to sit and type messages back and forth. I prefer digital over voice.”

Sun City field day is an opportunity to allow some new members and curious passersbys to operate the radios.

“Some of the members who had radios in the past but don’t have them here can operate and talk to people in the U.S. and Europe and other places in the world,” Frick said. “Anybody interested can stop by and ask questions and get an opportunity to operate the radios since we have licensed operators controlling the stations. This gets a lot of people exposed to the hobby.”

Mark Turpley, the S.C. section manager, will be visiting this year’s event. He is responsible for ham radio in the state.

“It’s a great opportunity to get together and have some camaraderie,” Rockefeller said. “We make a lot of contacts. Though they may be brief, we have fun reaching hundreds of different contacts.”

The Amateur Radio Club runs a weekly net Wednesdays at 8 p.m. to practice communications in case of emergencies. People outside the community can make contact during that time.